Sounders Crush Rapids: Move into Open Cup Semis

The Seat­tle Sounders of USL-1 crushed Col­orado of the MLS 5–0 on Tues­day night to move into the semi­fi­nals of the US Open Cup. The Sounders who are one of the best sup­ported USL clubs are the descen­dant of an NASL club who shared the same name and sported the same logo. As dis­cussed in episode seven of the Major League Soc­cer Talk pod­cast with GOL TV’s Lind­say Dean, the MLS’ fail­ure to cap­i­tal­ize on the local mar­ket recog­ni­tion of sev­eral for­mer NASL club names (most spe­cially in New York, Tampa and Fort Laud­erdale) hurt the league’s mar­ket­ing abil­ity and cred­i­bil­ity in its ini­tial years. If Seat­tle is awarded an MLS fran­chise as has been rumored, I would hope the Sounders name and logo lives on.